Mowbray, 51, threatened to walk away from the club in the summer unless the Sky Blues board agreed to a training-ground facelift.

And he even sacrificed two players to pay for it.

Now the former West Brom, Celtic and Middlesbrough manager could lead his team to the top of League One tomorrow afternoon, just six months after saving them from relegation and insisting the club called in the handymen.

"You think of the Ricoh Arena as the football club's base but they don't own it so the club lives in the training ground," said Mowbray.

"The pitches are as good as I have ever worked on but the building where the players eat, get changed and spend time together was in a poor state and not really befitting a top club.

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“I basically said I wasn't staying in the summer unless things changed because these are the things I strongly believe in”

Tony Mowbray

"I basically said I wasn't staying in the summer unless things changed because these are the things I strongly believe in.

"In the end we took the money out of playing budget to get some painters in, get some signs made and to get some photos on the walls.

"We got the tiles in the showers put back on the walls, we got the lights in the dressing rooms repaired just to make the players think, 'Wow'.

"It showed the manager was in, it was a new start and he'd actually got something done.

"We've got some badges on the gates when you come in now and a 'Welcome to the Sky Blue Lodge' sign.

"It was just to give the club a bit of identity.

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THE BOSS: Mowbray gave Coventry an ultimatum in the summer

"Only when I saw some paint pots on the floor did I agree to sign a contract because it needed to be done.

"It was all done in a short space of time and I think the paint was still drying when the players came back."

Victory at Colchester tomorrow could take Mowbray's men to the top of the table, just months after five wins from their final 11 games last season saved their League One status after he joined on a short-term deal.

That came after a turbulent two years which saw the club spend time in administration and play home games in Northampton after a cash row.

Money remains tight, with stats guru Chris Anderson appointed this week as managing director on a mission to increase income.

And rugby club Wasps now own the Ricoh, with the Sky Blues their tenants.

But Mowbray believes his squad, which includes former England star Joe Cole who is on loan from Aston Villa, is putting smiles back on faces after he cut his playing budget to spend cash elsewhere.

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VETERAN: Mowbray signed Cole last month

"I always want two more players but you have to put foundations down and I would rather look after the players we've got," he said.

"We can use that money and put it into the infrastructure of the club because that's going to be there for the next 10 or 15 years.

"And you make the group we've got have a bit of pride in the club they're playing for.

"There have been times I've said, 'We need this' and I've been told, 'We can't have it'.

"If that's what we have to do to get through this period then the team can take the club to another level when we have more investment, that is how we will have to get this spiral of success going upwards. But it starts on the grass."